THE CAPTIVATING RESCUE OF THE CHILEAN MINERS..........

Since early August the people of Chile and others around the world have been focused on the thirty three Chilean miners trapped underground in the 125 year old mine were they worked.  Hopes for their being rescued seemed to diminish and prospects as far off as Christmas, when in early October, their prospects for being rescued seemed to turn affirmatively.  And last Tuesday night and Wednesday morning that is exactly what happened.  After a harrowing seventy days of captivity in that collapsed mine shaft, using a meticulously, technologically, constructed tubular cylinder on a pulley, which was lowered and brought up slowly, each individual miner was brought out and up to their awaiting families and loved ones.  And their rescue and deliverance to safety was a captivating major news story in Chile and throughout the world.  In the crescendo of this year's fall elections in the United States and the plethora of prime time, live candidate debates nationwide being held, they took backseat to the blanketed wall of coverage the news media gave to the Chilean miners being brought up alive and reunited to those near and dear to them.  These thirty three Chilean men have been become a substantial human interest story.  Their lives are far from perfect, friction and tension were present among them in the early days of being stranded underground together, and one of the men it has been discovered had both a wife and mistress awaiting him above ground, but for the most part these trapped men pulled together and their positive attitudes and religious faith, helped to be remain a cohesive unit and stay focused, despite the hardship and deprivation they underway for an uncertain and stressful ten weeks.  In the end, they all came out alive, to acclamations and astonishment, that they all survived to see the future beyond that almost certain death chamber.  With the Chilean miners and their families and loved ones, we too should give thanks, for the necessity of faith, hope, and love, and the power of the partnership between God and Humankind, making a real difference in the darkest hours of despair and anxiety.  God Bless them, and keep them safe.  Please God, all of us can learn to take consolation and trust from this ordeal.  Never give up.  Never let desperation cause us to surrender or give in.  Always believe in the possibility for a positive, pro-active, productive, outcome to the maladies that confront us..........With Praise And Thanks To The Living And True God Of Creation,   Fr.  Troy

.....I dedicate this blog column on the Rescue of the 33 Chilean Miners, to the best Chilean I know, my friend and fellow believer, Hernan.  In Gratitude for his friendship and generous support of my priestly ministry.  Thanks Hernan..........